Page 38 of Reckless Hate

Anita slowly came to her. “T-thank you so much. T-that was Rudra and his friends. T-they always like to terrify me.”

Samantha looked at her roommate’s shaken face. “Are you going to the housing unit?”

Her roommate shook her head. “No, I have a test. I was stepping out to go to the library.”

“You want me to come along?”

Her roommate shook her head again. “N-no. It’s okay.”

Apart from looking slightly shaken, her roommate appeared fine.

Samantha handed the pepper spray can. “Keep this with you. I have others.”

“Thanks,” her roommate replied. She took it and smiled tentatively. “Thanks a lot for helping me.”

Samantha nodded.

As soon as Anita left, Samantha went to her apartment to shower and head to the workshop.

It was much later that night when she received an email. She was asked to be at the dean’s office the next morning.

CHAPTER 19

The Simha administration building was as impressively grand as the rest of the buildings in the campus. Samantha passed by a huge marble fountain before entering the building.

It was a couple of minutes before eight o’clock.

“I’m Samantha Roy. I have an appointment with the dean at eight.”

The administrative assistant checked the calendar and nodded with a smile. “Oh yes. Miss Neela is waiting for you inside. Go right in, Miss Roy.”

Nodding at the older woman, Samantha went towards the office that had the dean’s nameplate on it. She knocked on the door and waited.

This was the first time Samantha was interacting with the dean although she recalled seeing Neelima Raj a couple of times when she visited Ved’s grandfather’s estate during childhood. Neelima Raj and Ved’s aunt had been very good friends since childhood. One of those times Samantha recalled seeing Neelima Raj was at Ved’s aunt’s birthday party. It was the evening when things had fallen apart.

Her heart jerked in pain at the memories. Pushing away the past, she focused on the present.

She already knew why she was summoned. Although she didn’t regret what she did to Keya Gupta, she hoped it wouldn’t lead to a suspension.

“Come in,” a regal feminine voice summoned.

Samantha twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open before stepping into the dean’s office. She had barely taken a few steps when her heart skipped a beat. Her eyes fell on the broad back of her enemy who was seated across from the dean.

With her heart thudding, she walked on the carpeted floor towards the dean’s desk. Neelima Raj looked at her while seated behind the desk in a huge tufted leather chair.

“Take a seat, Miss Roy,” she ordered.

Samantha took the empty chair next to Ved Simha. She deliberately didn’t glance his way and kept her eyes on the dean. But she felt every bit of his presence next to her along with his citrusy cologne that filled her senses.

Neelima Raj pulled up a few documents before looking up at her. Something flashed inside the dean’s eyes, but it was gone quickly. Samantha wondered if she had imagined the dean staring into her eyes.

“Miss Roy, you’ve been summoned here because I’ve been informed of the various mishaps you’ve been involved in lately. The latest ones being that you caused a girl to sprain her ankle and then pepper-sprayed a group of boys. What do you have to say to that?”

Keya Gupta and the two guys she pepper-sprayed last night had complained.

“The guys were in my space. I did it in self-defense. And the girl came in the middle of my tennis practice session and got hit since she was in the way.”

Neelima Raj raised an eyebrow. “Maybe the pepper spray on the boys I can understand as there would be witnesses. But what about the girl’s injury? You are a two-time national youth tennis champion, Miss Roy. I doubt whether your shots would stray so much that it hit someone exactly on the same spot causing them to bruise and lose their balance.”

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